Hope you like it, I'd love some reviews on this one! Also, if there's a specific villain you want to see Mallory fight, or you have any suggestions, I'll be glad to hear them, just leave a review and let me know.
Mallory was in class when she got the first call from Peter. She looked at her phone and pressed ignore, planning to call her brother back after the lecture was over. He called again, though, almost as soon as she hung up on him. Her professor noticed her distraction and crossed his arms. She winced, looking at the board full of equations that she didn't know how to solve, but she pushed away from her desk and went out into the hall to take the call.
"Hey, is everything ok? I'm in class," she said when she answered.
"Uh, that's going to depend on what your definition of ok is," her brother replied.
Mallory sighed. "Is the world going to end in the next forty minutes?"
"Um, not that I know of," he replied.
"Is someone we know in or about to be in mortal danger?"
"Not exactly."
"Then it can wait, I'll call you when I'm out," she replied.
"Wait, there's a future here."
Mallory froze, hope fluttering in her chest despite her head telling her to focus. "A- a future?" she asked.
"Yeah, he claims to be the Flash's grandson."
Despite the improbability, Mallory still felt a crushing disappointment at the news. "Ok, um, is he threatening to kill anyone?" she asked.
"No, he just showed up at the cave and announced Nightwing and Robin's secret identities, mine and Gar's too. Did you know that Nightwing's name is Dick?"
Mallory smiled a little. "Is he there?" she asked, peeking in the classroom door to keep an eye on the lecture.
"Yeah, you want to talk to him?" Peter asked.
"Yeah," she replied.
"Hey," Nightwing said a second later.
"Hey, what's going on down there?" she asked.
"This kid just showed up, escaped from us, and started towards Central. He's going to meet the Flash."
"Do you need me to meet him there?" Mallory asked, checking the time. It would be dark in Central by now, so there was a good chance Barry wasn't patrolling. And it was Joan and Jay's anniversary today.
"No, I already called Wally, as soon as I hang up with you I'm going to call Barry and give him a heads up."
Mallory nodded. "Ok. I might swing by the cave when my class is over, just in case. Let me know if you need me," she said.
"Will do," he replied, and hung up. Mallory took a second to think about what was going on outside of that building, then she pushed the door open and went back to her desk. Her professor crossed his arms and paused the lecture until she found her seat.
"So good of you to rejoin us, Ms. Johnson. Would you like to share with us what was so important?" the man asked.
Mallory shook her head. "A family member showed up, we're just trying to figure out what to do with him," she said.
The professor went on with the lecture, and Mallory spent the next half an hour trying to focus on Chemistry when so many other thoughts were fighting for her attention.
As soon as her class was over, Mallory went back to her dorm, texting Wally, Dick, and Peter on her way. None of them would answer. She was almost to the dorm when a news station caught her eye. It was playing a clip of Central City, where there were pulses of energy, and four Flashes were at the scene. Mallory narrowed her eyes in disbelief, and a smile spread across her face to see Jay Garrick standing there in his old Flash suit, tin hat and all, and there was Wally in the old yellow and red. The new kid was standing next to Barry in a white and red suit with yellow earpieces and goggles. She stayed in front of the TV, convinced that the Flash family wouldn't need any help, and watched as they took care of the threat.
She debated whether she should still go to the cave, and in the end she decided that she might as well. She went back to her dorm and put on her suit and pulled some sweats on over it, and she walked back out the door. Unfortunately, she didn't make it all the way out. Anna was in the lobby, and she recognized Mallory immediately. She called her name and hurried to catch up with her.
"We're good, right? I mean, about that talk about superheroes."
Mallory looked at her with some confusion, then smiled and nodded. "Yeah, of course. It just got a little out of hand. Everyone's allowed to have their own opinions." It was strange to her that normal people only needed that one argument to end a friendship. Where she came from, the betrayal had to go much further than that.
"Ok, good. Hey, where are you headed?" Anna asked.
Mallory resisted a sigh. "Oh, I'm going to meet a friend across town," she said.
Anna eyed her clothes skeptically. "You're going out in that?" she asked.
Mallory looked at her, wishing she would just go away. "We're not going anywhere, we're staying in and watching a movie."
Anna smiled strangely, and Mallory sighed. "This wouldn't be a boy friend, would it?" she asked. "Oh, Alex is going to be crushed."
Mallory put on her sweetest smile. "No, it's not a boyfriend, but I am going to be late. We can talk some other time, ok?"
Anna smiled and nodded conspiratorially, and Malory pushed the doors open and hurried down the street to the train station. There was a zeta tube in the tunnel if she could just get there. She sighed with relief when she finally got there and punched in the familiar coordinates. The next thing she knew, she was in the living room of the cave. She pulled her sweats off and put on her mask and went out to the training room, where the Flash family, Dick, Gar, Peter, Robin, and Mal were standing around a holographic screen and a machine that was sitting in the center of the room. Dick was just confirming that the kid, Impulse, was Barry and Iris' grandson. She slipped into the room without drawing attention to herself, watching what was happening.
"Well, it's been crash, but the future awaits. Gotta run! Ha ha!"
Mallory rolled her eyes. Yep, he was a Flash.
"See what I did there? With the 'run'? That was for you, Gramps."
Wally, Jay, and dick looked just as annoyed at the pun as Mallory felt, but she allowed a small smile at Barry's face. He walked over to the kid as he was about to get into the machine.
"Bart, thanks for coming. I look forward to meeting you again for the first time. And watching you grow up."
There was something strange about Bart's face, but Mallory tried not to read too much into it. She knew from experience that she didn't want to know what would happen in the future. The kid's face broke into a smile.
"That will be crash." he said excitedly, and he wrapped his arms around Barry, who looked around awkwardly at first, then returned the hug with a smile. "So long," Bart said, stepping into the time machine.
Everyone stepped back, and Mallory moved to stand next to Wally. They nodded a greeting, not saying anything as the machine doors closed around Bart and…nothing happened. Everyone looked at each other, confused, and Gar titled his head.
"Maybe he's traveling forward one second at a time?" he suggested hesitantly.
The next second, the door opened again and Bart jumped out. "It's not working! The whole thing's fried!" he said, kicking the machine angrily.
"Can you fix it?" Barry asked.
"I'm a tourist, not a chronal expert," Bart snapped. "Look at me, I'm trapped in the stupid past. Ugh, I'm so moded."
Mallory exchanged a look with Wally, and he tilted his head. Barry put a hand on Bart's shoulder.
"Well, maybe you can figure it out someday. In the meantime, we can set you up with a room here at the cave, and if you want, maybe you could join the team." Dick looked up sharply, and Barry cleared his throat. "Uh, Peter, why don't you show Bart where he's going to stay?" the Flash suggested, looking around at the older heroes.
Peter shrugged and led the way to the rooms, Gar following closely. Robin and Mal stayed, though, so Mallory said, "Uh, why don't we go to the Watchtower. You're going to need to file a report on all of this, or Bats is going to lose his mind when he gets back."
Barry chuckled. "Yeah, and in the meantime, Nate's just as bad."
The older heroes went to the zeta tube and came out at the watchtower, where the only person there was Black Canary on monitor duty. She gave them a nod when they walked in and went back to watching the screen.
"He can't be on the team," Dick said firmly.
Barry tilted his head. "Why?" he asked.
Dick sighed heavily. "Because he's not from this time. He shouldn't have gone on that mission with you in Central. Who knows what he might have changed."
Mallory twisted her mouth, not wanting to say anything.
"But he can't go back to his time, what are we supposed to do, lock him up here for the rest of his life? It's not his fault he got stuck here." Barry said.
"I don't know, but I think we need to be a little more careful than just giving him a spot on the team," Dick said. He looked at Wally and Mallory to back him up.
Wally shrugged. "I mean, it's not like it's the first time people from the future have ended up here. Dicks right, we need to be careful about polluting the time stream." he said, then he took one look at Mallory and crossed his arms. "What?" he asked, recognizing the look on her face.
"I don't think it matters," she said after a moment.
Dick looked at her with surprise. "How can you say that?" he asked.
She looked around at the others, hesitating, then said, "because I don't think he's here by accident."
They looked at her with disbelief. "So, what, you think he got stuck here on purpose?" Jay asked. "Why would he do that?"
Mallory shrugged. "I don't know, but like Wally said, this isn't the first time we've had visitors from the future, and I remember Brek said once that their government kept a close watch on all time travel because they knew how dangerous it is. I know they were a lot further along in the timestream than this kid, but still, it seems like time tourism would be a bad idea for any time. There are other things, too. Little things, the way he was acting. I mean, come on, he just realized that he would never get back to his own time, would never see his family again, and the worst thing he could think to say was that he's moded? And then there's the fact that he went on the mission in Central. If he really was just a tourist, he would have stayed on the sidelines and watched Barry take care of it, but he didn't. Why?"
Dick's face changed as he thought about what she was saying. "So…so you think he's here to change something?" he asked.
She shrugged. "I think that whatever the reason he's here, we need to keep an eye on him, and let him do what he wants. At least, for now."
Barry nodded, and Dick sighed. "All right, he can have a spot on the team. I just hope this doesn't come back to bite us."
Barry put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, if it does, we'll deal with it then." He turned to Jay. "You ready to get back?"
The older man sighed and shrugged. "I guess. I sure hate to face Joan after this."
Mallory smiled. "You looked pretty good on TV, running with three other Flashes," she said.
He grinned. "Felt good, too. I might just start doing it more often."
Wally scoffed. "Yeah, right. After tonight, Joan's never going to let you out the house again."
The older two Flashes went to the zeta tube, and Mallory, Dick, and Wally moved closer together. Mallory looked at Dick and grinned.
"The suit looks a little small on him, doesn't it?" she asked, eying Wally's old suit.
Dick chuckled. "Yep, I think it's safe to say he outgrew the primary colors a long time ago."
Wally rolled his eyes. "Whatever. It still fits."
"Yeah, I guess it would if you weren't so out of shape," Dick said. He chuckled and turned to Mallory. "Did you see how bad he was getting outlapped back there?"
Mallory nodded. "Yeah, half the country did," she replied.
Their friend shook his head, smiling. "Ok, ok, don't bother, I'm going back into retirement. I'll see you guys later."
He started to go to the zeta tube and Mallory caught up to him. "Wait, I'm sorry, ok? It was really good to see you, KF. I've missed you around here."
He smiled, giving her a side hug. "You know, I think I missed you too, Inferno," he said.
She smiled and looked at Dick. He opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by an incoming transmission coming from Canary's screen. They looked over curiously as she answered, "Watchtower."
"This is Red Arrow. I'm going to need some backup and a transport. I found Speedy."
They all looked at each other in stunned silence for a long moment, not knowing how to react to the news. Canary was the first to recover.
"Uh, send your coordinates, I have three people available right now, I can send more if you need it."
Red sent his coordinates and Canary turned to the three. "I sent you the coordinates. He's in Tibet." Mallory pulled them up in her mask and nodded. "Ok, we're on our way," she said, and the three went to the zeta tube without another word.
The coordinates led them to a fort on a mountain. There weren't any guards on the wall, which was already strange.
"Inferno, can you take Nightwing?" Wally asked.
Mallory nodded and grabbed her friend's arms, propelling them up and forward with flames coming from her feet. They met Wally on the wall and started their way down cautiously, Mallory in the front with a fireball at the ready. They made their way down, but it was clear that Red, or at least someone, had been there. There was a trail of unconscious people going down the hall. The trail went to a heavy metal door that was ajar. There were more guards going towards the door, more than anyone could take down on their own.
Mallory, Dick, and Wally ran towards the room, bursting in and immediately joining the fight. They were forced to the other side of the room, and Mallory saw Roy and almost didn't block a spear in her surprise. The ghost of the man she'd seen on the rooftop was gone. He looked like he always had, clean shaven, strong, and confident. He gave her, Dick, and Wally a look and groaned.
"Ugh, it would be you three," he muttered.
Mallory punched the last guard, not watching as he slumped to the floor. The three newcomers looked at the person lying behind the group in stunned silence for a moment. It was a young Roy Harper, the original Roy Harper. He was unconscious, missing an arm, but he was there, found. Mallory looked at Roy, a small smile of disbelief on her face.
"Roy, you did it," she said quietly.
He looked at her and nodded, allowing a smile. "Yeah, I guess I did."
"And not a moment too soon."
The three turned and looked at Cheshire, not having noticed her before. She was holding something wrapped in a blanket, and Mallory ignited a hand, ready to fight. "What are you doing here?" she asked.
She felt a hand lowering her arm and looked up at Roy. "Relax, Inferno, it's fine," he said, walking over to Cheshire's side. "I can't have you burning my family."
Mallory narrowed her eyes, looking at Dick and Wally. "You're what?" Wally asked.
Roy chuckled. "My wife, and…my daughter."
They stared at the woman that had been their enemy for so long. "You married Cheshire?" Wally asked.
"And you have a daughter?" Mallory asked.
Cheshire adjusted the blanket, and a baby peeked out and broke into a grin, reaching out to the three. The resemblance to Roy was obvious, and they found themselves coming closer to the baby without even thinking about it. "Her name's Lian," Jade said.
Dick punched Wally. "Looks like Artemis has a niece," he said.
Mallory smiled, rubbing a finger on Lian's arm. The girl grabbed her finger, trying to pull her closer. Mallory smiled up at Roy. "Does this mean you can finally start living your life and stop feeling like you're a cheap copy?" she asked.
Roy tilted his head. "Look, I'm sorry about that, I just, I got a little desperate." They heard footsteps coming towards them and Roy looked at them. "Please tell me you have transportation out of here," he said.
They looked at each other. "Well…" Mallory said.
"Perfect," he muttered.
"Come on, let's get out of here while we still can," Dick said.
Roy grabbed Speedy, carrying him with him as the group got out of the fort. They got to the main hallway before they ran into a group of guards. Cheshire fought the group while holding Lian with one arm, and the girl was loving the violence. They got to the top level and the courtyard was full of soldiers, all ready to fight the group.
"Perfect," Roy muttered again, about to set Speedy down. Cheshire took the baby blanket off and handed the bundle to Mallory, who took the child with some surprise and slipped the blanket on. Cheshire grinned and faced the mob. "Now I can really fight," she said, and she did.
She and Dick took the lead, Wally running around disarming and knocking out as he could, and Mallory and Roy stayed at the back, taking out the soldiers that slipped through the cracks. Suddenly, a truck came driving through the crowd, and Wally pulled to a stop in front of them.
"Get in," he said. They didn't waste any time, and he started driving towards the wall.
"Why is there a car here?" Roy asked. Mallory handed Cheshire her baby back reluctantly from where she was hanging onto the side of the outside of the car.
"No idea, I'm just glad it runs," Wally replied.
"We're still trapped," Dick pointed out.
"No, we're not," Mallory said. She looked at Wally through the side mirror. "Turn it for the outside wall and keep going no matter what," she said.
"What? Why?" Wally asked.
"Just trust me," Mallory. He nodded, and she climbed onto the roof of the car and grabbed hold of the rack. She flamed up and pulled as hard as she could, tapping into her strength, flaming up as much as she could, and the car started to come off the ground. She didn't stop, pulling it higher and higher as they got closer to the wall.
She could hear Cheshire in the car saying, "Ugh, great, the first time I trust a hero and I'm going to crash into the side of a wall."
"No, we're gonna make it," Dick said.
"No, we're not. Come on, Red, we can make it to the wall from here."
"No, we're going to make it," Wally said.
Mallory blocked out the chatter and gave a final tug. The wheels clipped the top of the wall but they made it over. Mallory kept going to the makeshift road, setting the car down as gently as she could, and she collapsed on the roof. The car took off as soon as it touched the road, and Dick and Roy popped up to pull her back into the car.
"Since when can you lift a car?" Roy asked as he got her settled safely in his seat, him taking the place on the outside.
She shrugged. "Well, you would know if you hadn't dropped off the grid," she said. She looked at the kid in the seat between her and Cheshire. "But then I guess you might never have found him."
Wally glanced back at the others, his signature grin on his face. "We're alive!" he announced unnecessarily.
Dick sighed and leaned back in his seat as they drove down the mountain. "This was a good night," he said.
Mallory looked between Roy and Speedy and Lian, back to Nightwing and Kid Flash. She smiled and leaned back, putting her feet on the consol. "Yeah, it was," she said, smiling with satisfaction.